In recent years widespread use has been made of recording materials in the form of magnetic tape. Magnetic tape is conveniently handled on reels and in order to minimise damage to the tape from improper handling various so-called cassette formats have been developed. These consist generally of a pair of reels housed in a suitable casing in side by side relationship, the casing including appropriate guide means to guide tape from one reel through a path in the casing to the other reel. The casing is appropriately configured so that when the cassette is placed in tape recording or reproduction apparatus for recording or play, appropriate recording and erase heads are brought to lie adjacent the tape path and accordingly can interact with the magnetic coating on the tape.
One area of substantial growth in recent years in connection with tape cassettes has been the so-called video cassette. While a number of cassette formats have been developed, two have become pre-eminent and are known by the respective trade marks of BETAMAX and V.H.S. In both cases the cassette is adapted to be placed into a video cassette recorder/player apparatus which is connected to a normal domestic television receiver to display the recording. A major industry has emerged over the last few years connected with the supply of pre-recorded video material on such cassettes.
The fundamental sector of the pre-recorded video cassette industry comprises the owners of the copyright of the original feature films.
The manufacture, distribution and sale of prerecorded cassettes may be undertaken by the copyright owners themselves or they may license others to undertake any or all of the operations for them. Whatever the variations the owners of the copyright are entitled to be rewarded when their copyrighted material is viewed.
From the production of an original feature film to the completed pre-recorded cassette is an expensive process which is reflected in their relatively high price. This constitutes a barrier to sales, particularly where, in contrast to, for example, phonograms, the average consumer will not want to view the material a very large number of times. The tape medium itself is of course adapted for viewing a very large number of times without noticeable deterioration of the quality of the reproduced image. From this commercial situation has emerged an increasing practice of hiring out of video cassettes rather than their direct sale.
This has led to the proliferation of renters who purchase pre-recorded cassettes of feature films and then hire them out to their customers for an agreed rental fee for a specified period of time, e.g. 24 hours. There are many variations of this basic practice. This means that when the renter purchases the cassette each of the elements from the copyright owner to the distributor receive a share of the purchase price. Thereafter they receive nothing additional although the renter may hire the cassette to a hundred customers or more.
Each time a cassette programme is viewed its value to the copyright owner is depreciated because in most instances the viewers would not wish to see it again so its potential value has thereby been reduced by this proportion.
In order that the copyright owners can be more fairly reimbursed, it is desirable to count the number of times a cassette is used. Clearly, when a cassette is hired out, the owner cannot know how many times it is used by the hirer. Proposals have been made, accordingly, for counters in cassettes. British Patent Specifications Nos. 1284020, 1312085 and 1448375 show such proposals, but none has achieved commercial success, since they rely on an interaction between cassette and playing apparatus requiring a modification of the latter or have means such as an arm bearing on the tape itself, which would rapidly lead to tape degradation.